Even though the salmon rivers of Iceland have not officially opened the first salmon of the season has already been caught.

Norwegian anglers were fishing for sea trout in the river mouth of West Ranga, their guide told them to use a Sunray Shadow because it has been very successful for the seatrout.

And successful it was indeed, they caught one sea trout and much to their surprise a salmon! And no it was not a Kelt, it was a beautiful silvery 3kg fresh salmon with sea lice. The salmon was of course released after the fight.

The weight of the fish fills us with optimism as it was not a typical one or two year salmon. It was more likely a salmon that had skipped going upstream last summer because it had not gained enough weight and spent the winter at sea instead

As you may know the runs of the first year salmon were very poor last summer and we had been hoping that they might return this year instead having stayed in the sea for an extra year. Hopefully that will be the case.

Previously we told you about the sightings of the first salmon and now the first one has actually been caught!

This will be a great summer!

Tight lines

Johann David – jds@lax-a.is